what electronic aids do you use?

[ejja_1]

Im with trev and the rest of most of you, Creative Mountain has awesome stuff and it doesnt put a huge dent in your pocket.
The Title generator is great for generating random plot hooks as well as the tilte for any tome, and the dwellings generator makes your room descriptors a heck of a lot easier when making places for your pc's to encounter. And if you like premade adventures, then you really need to check out The Whispering Woodwind and The West Road Warden.
Lots of gaming goodness to be had.

Ejja_1

 

[EricNoah]

I use the following:

I have an html version of the SRD a click away on my toolbar.

I use eTools for character and monster generation. 3.0 only at the moment.

I use Excel spreadsheets for spell calculations for PC and NPC spellcasters. There's a Steve Mulhern spreadsheet for 3.0 and 3.5, and I created an Arcana Unearthed spreadsheet as well.

I use a variety of home-brewed spreadsheets for other AU spell/magic related needs.

I use Campaign Cartographer 2.0 with City Designer and Dungeon Designer for mapping.

 

[annadobritt]

Lately I've been using DMGenie, since it has the 3.5 information in it. The 3.5 data set for E-tools won't be out until sometime in January.

Also use TableSmith and JHNameGen Gold.

For mapping I use CC2 Pro and all it's add ons.

 

[tburdett]

Fifthed.

The SRD Bundle by CMG is my main reference when I am working on my game.

I also like to use PCGen to manage the PC's and NPC's in my game.

These products save me a ton of time.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

I use Etools. It started out crappy but has been getting steadily better as the good folks at Code Monkey Publishing release patches. The 3.5 rulesets aren't ready yet, but you can purchase data sets for most WoTC material (splatbooks, arms and equipment, BoVD, etc...), and custom-enter in everything else you could possibly want (skills, PrCs, items (magic and mundane), races, monsters, etc...)

I also use e-tools. Great for in game stuff.
Very easy to use. Almost no learning curve. Very straightforward.

Later...

 

[Buttercup]

I'll add my voice to the choir praising CMG products. The SRD bundle is so well bookmarked that you can appear to be a rules god (or goddess, in my case) with just a click or two. Player summoning an animal? Look up those stats on the fly! Bringing a pile of books to the table is a pain in the neck. Running Plexus is muuuuuch better.

The book generator is so much fun, I can't even tell you. In the first campaign I ever ran, a PC walked into a room with many books, and naturally asked me what they were. I froze. It was horrible. But that will never happen to me again, because I've got Unlimited Titles.

The Dwellings product is great because I find myself describing buildings in the same ways, over and over. It keeps me from getting into a rut.

For a mapper, I use Fractal Mapper. It's much cheaper than Campaign Cartographer, and I've actually been able to figure out how to use it, a huge plus, as you can imagine.

 

[Altalazar]

I use MS Word and sometimes Excel - and that's it. Though I did once put together an access database of all of the units of warrior/followers for a fighter of mine - that was back in 1E.

 

[SJ]

Tablesmith, the revised NPC Generator from Jamis Buck now Andargor, and PCGen are what I use most often (read: for basically every game).

I like etools, but I'm waiting for the 3.5 datasets for my current games.

I also like Campaign Suite, it's undergoing an xml conversion right now on its way to 3.5 as well. When the beta shakes out it will probably return to the top of my list.

Oh, the monster stat block generator from is also great.

For AU I use all the stuff Eric Noah has, plus other stuff from diamondthrone.com

There's a few websites like

http://www.enworld.org/cc/fiend_factory/elc/encounter_calculator.htm
http://www.irony.com/village.html
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/index.html
http://www.fellowship.no/dnd.php?p=craft

that just flat-out save me time doing numbers and often tedious work.

And MS Word usually collates everything together.

I don't use a pc at the table, all my work is preparatory and then printed for in-game reference. I've tried pc-based stuff, it just doesn't work for me.

I think that DMGenie, DMFamiliar, and RolePlayingMaster are all great tools, I just don't mentally connect with them, and I've tried the demo versions at least 4 times each.

As many other threads note, you'll have to try a bunch of stuff and see what helps you and what doesn't. I imagine that there exists a tool to do pretty much whatever you want, if you keep looking.

PS: Thanks to each and every one of the authors of all the tools I mentioned above!

 

[DMFTodd]

what electronic aids do you use?

I don't use any myself but this girlfriend of mine in college used... oh wait. We're not talking about that are we?

 

[NeghVar]

Thanks DMFTodd for that valuable insight...

I myself use the following "Electronic Aids":

1. First and foremost Mark's (from CMG) DM advice threads available here on EN World (anybody care to enter the link - I have it on my work PC not here at home).

2. CMG's SRD fits into my plans as well - I downloaded the freebies - they look great!

3. Microsoft Excel - I use quite a few spreadsheets for creating magic weapons and monsters.

4. GridSmith - it makes outstanding rooms (at the moment I am using it to fill in gaps on items #5 and #6)

5. Skeleton Key Games e-Adventure Tiles - some outstanding sets here - give'em a look

6. 0One Games - the tiles these guys are putting out are pretty good too (SKG still is the winner though)

7. A plethora of character sheets either from Ema or from the M ad Irishman.

8. Movie soundtracks in the background for mood - both Conan soundtracks, any of the LotR soundtracks, and anything from Midnight Syndicate.

Thanks!